Vacationers opt for wellness retreats

View full sizeSEAN SIMMERS, The Patriot-News, fileWellness vacations often include fitness classes and yoga.

Ahhhhhh, vacation. The sun. The sand. The surf. The sit-ups? The protein shakes? The stress-reduction workshops?

Yes, many of today’s vacationers are skipping an old-school week of beach-hugging and bar-hopping to opt instead for a total mind and body experience in a tropical, pamper-me paradise.

Google “wellness retreat” and a whole new category of “Health and Fitness Travel” pops up.

Barry Richcreek, co-owner of Richcreek Vacation Center in Lower Paxton Twp., is not sure the trend has peaked yet, but wellness vacations “are definitely on the upswing,” especially during hunting season when many women head to the spa or women’s weekend away when their husbands or boyfriends clamber off to hunting camp. The Caribbean, Arizona and Miami, in particular, are in vacation vogue for many midstaters yearning for wellness, he said.

Overnight wellness venues range from rustic, back-to-nature cottages to luxurious, marble-lined mansions. Most getaways include not only massages and manicures, but also fully equipped fitness centers, customized face and body treatments, nutrition and stress-relief workshops, body-friendly dining and more. Travel agents and marketing professionals say the retreats attract both men and women, singles and couples, and a mix of ages and occupations.

Resorts closer to home have responded to this trend with their own spa, fitness and wellness packages, including Felicita Mountain Resort and Spa in Middle Paxton Twp. and The Spa at the Hotel Hershey. Day spas have also sprung up in almost every community, where you can order up premium services a la carte.

Local yoga studios also offer wellness excursions to faraway fitness-friendly destinations. Bobbi Misiti of Be Fit Body and Mind Yoga in Camp Hill has taught yoga in some of the world’s most must-see sites, including Egypt, Romania, Germany and Poland, and she is eager to share her passion.

For the past four years, Misiti has taken groups of six or eight people to Maui, Hawaii, and the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico and, much closer to home, has taken groups of 20 or more to Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Cumberland County for a long weekend of yoga classes, cooking demonstrations and hiking.

“Learning to appreciate the sunset and feel the earth on your feet while on retreat and the health benefits that come from that is one of the many benefits — and carrying a little of that home is even more beneficial,” Misiti said. She said immersing your feet in mud, for example, reduces inflammation in the body.

Why take a vacation from yoga when you vacation? “Because it feels so good,” Misiti said. “You miss it in your body.

“It’s like taking a shower. You feel blah if you don’t take one. You just get used to having that clean feeling,” she said.

In Hawaii, participants swim with whales and turtles, hike in lush green bamboo forests and walk along red sand beaches. “Exploration, hiking and enjoying nature are big parts of my retreats,” Misiti said. “Retreats are not about laying around and eating — we do enough of that at home!”

Mary Jane Wertz, owner of the Trophy House in Harrisburg, went to Hawaii with Misiti, traveling to the studio of Nancy Gilgoff, one of the original western students of Pattabhi Jois in Ashtunga yoga.

Wertz spent about two hours each morning at Gilgoff’s studio doing either instructor-led or self-guided yoga. Although she confesses to being a novice with artificial knees, she described the classes as “intense” and the instructor as “no-nonsense” but “wonderful.”

She, Misiti and the class members then left their yoga mats behind for authentic “local music, restaurants, beaches, waterfalls, farmers’ markets and swimming holes that tourists wouldn’t find.”

“Being a part of the world community of Ashtanga yoga was my favorite part,” she said, as she shared meals and sat on the beach with people from all over the world. She felt more like a visiting family member than a tourist, she said.

Realtor Donna Fleetwood went to Misiti’s Ayurveda and Ashtanga Yoga Retreat in Pine Grove Furnace State Park multiple times. She loved the camp’s serene setting, lack of cellphone service, healthy food and cooking lessons and the time to do yoga.

“It was a total mind, body and spirit experience,” Fleetwood said. “I still use many of the things I learned to stay in balance and learned practices that will help me the rest of my life.”

Like Fleetwood, you can save the airfare and stay close to home to find relaxation. Felicita offers wellness weekends in May, July and September, according to Deb Catalano Clionsky, sales and marketing manager. Participants stay overnight and enjoy a continental breakfast, stress-reducing massages, pools, hot tubs, hiking trails and wellness seminars on self-esteem and self-image. Sessions led by local speakers such as Pat Gadsden and James Spooner focus on such topics as removing scars from your life and getting an “emotional face-lift,” Clionsky said. Many business groups from outside the area book these mini-vacations.

“This resort is so peaceful, so relaxing, it has a little bit of everything,” Clionsky said.

“A lot of times, we hear a lot of ‘We felt like we were far away,’” Clionsky said. “We are secluded, but only six minutes off Front Street. ... You get a relaxed, out-in-the-mountains kind of feel.”

Whether you journey near or far for your Pilates and pina coladas, the journey within can prepare you for a lifetime of health and happiness.